Packaging serves any number of functions in the food product industry. Packaging may provide for distribution, promotion, and advertising of the product. Further, packaging can provide for definition of product shape and format, and provides the end consumer with varying degrees of portion control. Packaging may also serve to ensure product purity, quality and overall product integrity up to the point of use. To this end, packaging may also affect certain product characteristics, especially in those products which comprise chemical agents intended to affect product characteristics during or after baking.
The art of packaging food is well developed. For example, Lorber, 1,861,124, discloses a package for uncooked biscuits having a telescoping cover which rises as the dough rises to provide space for the increase in the size of the dough mass. Vents are provided for air to escape during the rising of the dough. The package may be in the form of a square box with partitions which divide the body of the package into square compartments, or in the form of a tube.
Traller, 1,988,058, discloses a dough package comprising a roll including sheets of dough between sheets of non-adhesive paper which is rolled into a substantially solid cylindrical mass. Farrar et al., 4,769,245, disclose a method for packaging brown and serve baked goods. Hot loaves of bread are heat sealed within a film which has horizontal and vertical seams. A minute filter hole or aperture is formed on the bottom of the package which permits the package to breathe without admitting an excess of microbes.
Wiggins, 3,512,632, discloses a pressure release valve for flexible pouches. Although in this case the food to be packaged is coffee beans, the package here permits venting of carbon dioxide emitted from the coffee beans. The package comprises a pouch or bag constructed of flexible film or sheet fitted with a one-way release valve.
Joslin, 2,810,650, may be of interest for disclosing doughs and batters which can be stored under refrigerated conditions for a long period of time without excessive gas evolution. Byrd, 3,502,487, discloses the packaging of foods. The disclosed package is vented for the exhaust of vapors and/or fluids. The package is sealed to prevent re-entry of vapors and/or fluids. The package is intended to accommodate extreme temperature changes and/or pressure conditions.
Drummond et al., 5,366,744, is directed to a method for making a packaged dough suitable for extended refrigerated storage and to a packaging system for storage of the refrigerated dough. In the packaging system for storage of refrigerated, leavened dough, Drummond teaches the use of a rigid hermetically sealed package containing a dough.
Turpin, 3,851,757, a two compartment package is described which consists of an outer spirally wound fiber can containing a dough product. The disclosed can also contains a second compartment which holds icing.
Davis, Jr., 4,038,428, relates to a method of packaging prepared piecrust dough that may be required to remain within its package for relatively long periods of time and within which thereafter the dough may be rolled into piecrust form while still in its packaging receptacle. Thomas, Jr., 5,164,208, and 5,240,133 disclose that engages a lid to a container by the formation of interlocking waves of lid material and container material.
One accepted means of packaging refrigerated, leavened doughs is through the use of fiber board cans such as those disclosed in McDilda et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,284. With this type of packaging, the dough is placed in the can prior to substantial proofing, so most of the proofing occurs in the can. The can itself is closed but not hermetically sealed after the dough has been placed in it. The leavening action in the dough causes the dough to rise in the closed can, and as the head space gas vents out of the can, the dough completely fills the inside of the can and seals it.
While many of these systems provide workable packaging alternatives, a large number of variables need to be considered when packaging a leavened composition.
As a result, there is a need in the marketplace for packaging technology which provides an alternative to the technology presently available.